“I was there, but in a greater sense… Was I there?” Elliot
We begin with meeting a strange man in charge of the room that is currently trapping Penny and Plum – Whose job is apparently, to protect the integrity of Space-time. He tells that no one should be trusted with the power of time travel. Only he puts it to them as “Relieving that burden” they have a choice, either they sit in the weird experimental chair and get stabbed repeatedly and their travelling powers are seeped out of them – or they’re simply trapped in the room forever.
This is followed by an eerily uncomfortable scene, in which we watch Seb force Josh through the soil of Fillory and down into the Underworld. Clawing his way out of the earth Hoberman wakes to find himself in a less impressive version of Stranger Thing’s the Upside Down. Essentially, just a dark forest that has random stacks of what looks like scrap metal and a slightly yellow hue to the whole place. Easily understandable as a metaphor – a world where nothing but the scraps of life remain – though aesthetically, it does underwhelm. Although, it is somewhat mitigated by this glorious moment =
Meanwhile with Elliot and Julia, being trapped without any plan in sight, to help them escape – Elliot comforts the slowly spiraling and emotional Julia. And in line with the other psychic powers that Julia is slowly accruing – seems to become heightened during particularly emotion bursts – and she winds up hearing Charlton. Building on this discovery, they realize if Julia believes that she is in imminent danger – the fetus then detects the mother’s distress and reacts protectively. She could conceivably travel them out of the cell to freedom, or anywhere she might subconsciously feel safe. Of course, this prompts a gloriously convoluted plan, as they need to create an emergency or a perceived threat, but Julia has to believe it is 100% real or else she won’t be able to spirit them away. If she knows everything I actually fine and Elliot / Charlton is behind whatever ruse is sued – it will fail. Some lovely moments saturated with Catch 22. Summed up in a nice bite-sized nugget:
Josh then curiously finds an elevator sitting in the middle of the forest. With only one button to press “Underworld” Under the underworld, the find themselves in what can only be described as a fancy version of every pricy funeral home. After Julia successfully gets herself out of the cage, we find Alice and Kady making their way to meet the literal God of the Underworld, Hades. Who we soon learn is in grieving, Our Lady Underground was his wife – and the crazy twins sister killed her. He agrees to help Josh out of the Underworld on the condition that they clean up the mess after – deal with whoever is trying to break someone out of the Underworld, and using the Takers to do it. He warns:
“If you don’t and let me say this clearly. Your world will be destroyed too. If this person were to get past the Takers, there would be just one door between them and the person that they lost. And if they were to crack that door, who knows how many of the dead would spill through. Not just the one he wants, but all the dead. It could mean the end of everything.”
Knowing that this is our last season and after this there’s only three episodes we can assume that we’re seeing some foreshadowing, this will be the last of the insurmountable obstacles to pass. In the meantime, Penny and Plum have been trapped in a timeless room, and figure out that without feeling human needs and requirements, they’re in literal torture. No time passing, never hungry, thirsty, or needing to use a bathroom. Plum gives in and sits herself down in the creepy chair that was quote unquote eradicating time travelling plasma factor. But after Penny snoops he sees its actually collecting it. They talk their way out of there with what little remains in her veins – he sends them back to their current timeline – que to everyone else sitting in the apartment. Only there’s one even bigger surprise for Penny… See you next week!
